Planetary gear assemblies have traditionally been used for angular-velocity reduction from an input shaft to an output shaft. Traditional planetary gear assemblies are composed of a sun gear, a ring gear, and planetary gears. The planetary gears are located between the ring and sun gears and are connected to a planetary gear carrier which equally spaces the planetary gears about the sun gear. Two or more planetary gear carriers may be lined up to form several stages of the planetary gear assembly.
Planetary gear assemblies of the above-mentioned type are used in numerous industrial and commercial device applications. One application is in electromechanically driven power struts between a drive motor and a drive spindle. Power struts of this type find their application in tailgates and liftgates, or in other hinged structures for opening and closing a panel or other component.